


exactly how this force thing works

by Meskeet



Series: h/c bingo fills 2017 [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I love that tag okay, Poe Dameron Hurts So Prettily, Pre-Relationship, Rescue Missions, Small TLJ Spoilers, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 18:04:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13059282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meskeet/pseuds/Meskeet
Summary: Rey could have gone a really, really, long time without seeing the inside of a interrogation chamber again.





	exactly how this force thing works

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Red_Tigress](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Tigress/gifts).



> Finally rushing to finish my H/C Bingo! This is for the prompt: 'restrained' and the start of my effort to write a daily fic until January 5th to meet the bingo deadline.
> 
> Yes, I loved this movie and I loved these two, and apparently, I am hella down to whump Poe. Many thanks to Red, who is the real MVP for keeping this train going.

Rey has seen far more of the First Order than anybody really ever should, she thinks. On one hand, the rigid adherence to approved ship designs means that seeing one transport ship really means that she’s seen them all. On the other, she could have gone a really, really, long time without seeing the inside of an interrogation chamber again.

Really, it’s a miracle that Poe hadn’t been executed right away. The First Order isn’t exactly known for being the most hospitable political organization in the galaxy, especially when it came to their brand of rebel scum. Luckily for Poe, however, hosting one of the Resistance’s more important – and at this point, one of the only - officers meant he’d been transported to a ground station and held for interrogation.

 She doesn’t want to use the Force unless she has to – Kylo Ren hasn’t been seen since Luke had rather publically humiliated him, but that doesn’t mean he won’t come running if he senses her in the middle of one of his bases. He might have given up on the _join me and together we will rule the galaxy_ idea, but that meant the result of any encounter they have would likely be final.

So, no Force, which means Rey’s holding a blaster and not the lightsaber clipped into her belt that Leia had pressed knowingly into her hand after the leadership’s emergency meeting. The one use of the Force she did allow herself was a thin cloak that let the Stormtrooper’s eyes skip over her hiding place and down the hallway as she passed.

Poe Dameron is one of the few people in the galaxy completely, utterly closed to the Force, and it makes it all too easy to find the gap where someone should be in her senses. She scowls at the locked door, tapping into her comms.

“The door in front of me, if you please,” she says to BB-8. There’s a whistle from the other end and then the lock disengages with an audible hiss.

She takes one quick, last glance down the hall and slips through the door.

Poe’s slumped forward in the chair, his head lolling to one side. For a moment, she thinks he’s asleep – but then, as her foot scuffs the ground quietly, he jerks violently in his restraints.

“Give it up, will you?” he mumbles. “Not – not going to give you anything. Been over this before.”

 _Oh, Poe._ Rey stops her approach as the interrogation droid whirrs to life. It glances first at Poe, then turns its sensors on her – say what you like about First Order programming, but it doesn’t take long at all for it to recognize she isn’t supposed to be here.

She shoots it three times – twice to pierce its armor, the third time because it makes her feel marginally better – and it crashes against the wall with a bang.

So much for stealth.

Poe being who is he, actually relaxes a little at the violence.

“We have got to stop meeting like this,” he says, a little more clearly, although his words still run into one another. Then he frowns, shaking his head, and says. “Rey?”

Rey walks over to the interrogation droid. “BB, can you check to see if he was able to activate an alarm?”

The droid’s smug response startles a laugh from her, but a chirping warble follows on its heels.

She gives the interrogation droid another kick for good measure and turns to Poe. Being closer means that the dreary half-light of the chamber is enough to give her a good look at Poe.

“It’s me,” she says, trying to share the little bit of warmth that fills her chest from the sight of him squinting back at her – even if it is through a swollen eye. There’s two harsh marks on his temples, a jagged incision from when he must have fought back against the droid’s probe running alongside his eye. The other side of his face is a sunset of colors, dark purples blending into mottled red that only ends at his hair, which sticks to his face from what must be a mixture of sweat and blood. “Hey.”

Poe matches her smile, pain briefly giving way to a bittersweet mixture of surprise, disbelief, and what Rey thinks is the same warmth she’s feeling. “Sorry for the lack of hospitality,” he says. “It’s not exactly the Millennium Falcon around here.”

Rey tries not to look at the blood dripping from Poe’s chair onto the floor below. “Leia suggested a surprise visit,” she says. “Apology accepted for the mess.”

Poe laughs but it stops abruptly when his breath catches in his throat. Rey does her best to ignore the whine of pain, but BB-8 must have heard it – there’s a shrill noise of outrage that sends a burst of feedback into Rey’s ear.

“He’s okay, BB-8,” Rey says, carefully placing a hand on the restraints keeping Poe’s hands locked in place. There’s a flicker in the Force that makes her half-turn, a brief moment of fear she hadn’t anticipating locking her breath in her throat – but no, Kylo Ren doesn’t stand behind her in the doorway. It’s just her.

 _He’s okay,_ she tells herself, fiercely. _Poe’s okay._

“Rey?” Poe asks. “Is-”

“BB-8, can you unlock these?”  Rey thinks, distantly and rather unfairly, that if Poe asks if _she’s_ okay, that she’ll want to hit him. She can’t find anywhere to override the codes, and she’s worried overloading the chair’s power will set off some kind of alarm, or worse, hurt Poe, and irritation makes her fingers tense.

Rey pulls away from the restraints before she does something she’ll regret, hearing BB-8 whistle as the droid runs through the systems. She winces as the pitch continues to rise, the droid’s frustration growing even more quickly than hers, which she hadn’t thought possible.

“I didn’t think Leia would organize a rescue mission. I always knew she cared,” Poe’s words are quiet, spoken in a huff that’s almost a laugh, but Rey can’t even begin to decipher the layers underneath the joke.

She flicks the first bit of bare skin that she sees – Poe’s forearm, which has been left exposed by the sleeve pushed up over his elbow, which is covered in track marks and sharp pricks of red. “The Resistance thought it was too dangerous to send me, but Leia practically locked me in the ship and told me to go. According to her, you don't leave your copilot behind.”

BB-8’s quick series of chirps sounds far too much like klaxon’s for Rey’s stretched nerves. “Stay there,” she tells the droid quickly. “It’s fine, BB-8. I’ll get him out.”

Rey moves her hand lower, laces Poe’s fingers through her own. “Hey, Poe.” It’s not exactly the reassuring tone she wanted to hit, but it’ll have to do. “Poe,” she says again, to make sure she has his attention. There are more bruises here, the same bruises that she had found after her escape from the Planetkiller, and the endless beat of _let me out, let me out, let me out_ that still woke her from the dead of sleep. “I’m going to break these, but – I don’t know where Kylo is. I left before Luke could… well, really teach me much at all, but if I use the Force, he may be able to sense me.”

“Running.” For a moment, she doesn’t think that Poe understands, because his head falls sideways again. He closes his eyes, gathers a breath that doesn’t go as deep as she thinks it should. “Yeah, I can do that.”

For all that Poe’s the one shivering, his fingers are warm, much warmer than Rey’s own. _The Force is for more than just lifting rocks,_ Luke had said, or maybe he’s saying that now, because his voice has an undercurrent of amusement doesn’t remember. Maybe – well, maybe it’s not just the big things it’s there for. Maybe underneath all of Luke’s piles of mopak, he’d meant that the Force is there for the little things too.

Like this, although she certainly wouldn’t call freeing Poe a _little thing._

“Ready?” she asks, and although both Poe and BB-8 reply in the affirmative – a determined nod and a light trill – it’s herself she’s asking. Rey finds that steady rock beneath her, the light sun of Ahch-To on her face, and breathes.

The metal splits under her fingers, a clean strike – Poe sends the pieces flying to the ground as he practically flings himself out of the chair. Rey, still in a half-trance, stops him from crashing to the floor not with her hands, but, unthinkingly, with the Force instead.

“ _Put me down,_ ” Poe says, fiercely and Rey is so surprised by the emotion that she just… drops him.

Finn had told her, once, that he was there when Ren captured Poe. Rey drops to her knees beside him, half-reaches out before she can stop herself, and waits.

Poe pushes himself up, trembling. Rey doesn’t shake, although it’s tempting enough – each moment they hesitate is another moment when Kylo could be heading towards the station, when Stormtroopers could be marching down the hall towards them. For a moment, Poe crouches on his knees, balanced by the weight of one hand, and then he meets her eyes.

He grasps her arm, his grip surprisingly strong despite his sunken in eyes, the bright line of fresh blood tracing over his cheekbone and disappearing under his torn collar. Rey pulls him to his feet, but doesn’t let go. Poe sways unsteadily, and when he takes a step, his left leg almost buckles underneath him.

“It’s not that far of a walk,” Rey promises. “Through the doors, down a few hallways, out the front, and then BB-8 is down the canyon.”

“Nice of them to make escaping convenient,” Poe replies. Rey winces as he takes another step and she hears his teeth grind together. She ignores the catch in his voice when his foot hits the ground. “I don’t suppose the Force could help us skip all that in the middle.”

Rey smiles, like she knows he wants her to. He’s not as heavy as he should be, reserves long-spent by the effort of resisting the First Order, and she’s able to take his weight easily. BB-8 opens the door for them as they reach it, a cheerful _all-clear_ chirp letting her stride out with confidence.

“I missed a few lessons,” she says, cheerful and apologetic, and still not quite able to push away her smile. “But I don’t really think that’s how the Force works.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please comment if you enjoyed!


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